The third annual ‘celebrity audit’ from the charity Sense About Science has been released, and it makes for amusing—and depressing—reading. The campaign, targeting celebrities who promote theories, therapies and campaigns that make little or no scientific sense, this year takes a swipe at Tom Cruise, Jim Carey, Barack Obama and Demi Moore, among others.
In similar fashion, Ben Goldacre compiles his end-of-year list of Bad Science. This quote sums it up nicely:
It’s only when you line these jokers up side by side that you realise what a vast and unwinnable fight we face. […] In a world where rigorous evidence from scientific research languishes unpublicised, the media continued to churn out bogus wacky science stories.
As Andrew commented yesterday, books such as Goldacre’s Bad Science should be compulsory reading in schools.
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There may be a number of reasons why theist people have more children than non-believers, as Anthony Gottlieb–former executive editor of The Economist and author of The Dream of Reason–suggests in this article from Intelligent Life.
Like other demographers, Eric Kaufmann expects western Europe to become markedly more religious in the course of the 21st century, as a result of the relatively low fertility of unbelievers and immigration from more pious places. Not only do denominations with traditionalist values tend to have higher birth rates than their more liberal co-religionists, but countries that are relatively secularised usually reproduce more slowly than countries that are more religious. According to the World Bank, the nations with the largest proportions of unbelievers had an average annual population growth rate of just 0.7% in the period 1975–97, while the populations of the most religious countries grew three times as fast.
Prof. Chad Orzel of Uncertain Principles highlights a number of ways we can all help to improve the public’s perception of science.
- Buy and promote science books
- Demand science from the media
- Support science education across the board
- Train and/or support science teachers
- Encourage science students in other careers
- Encourage good commuicators
- Reward outreach
Written primarily for professional scientists, I feel these points apply to everyone with an interest in science and education.
via Seed
Redfin, a U.S.–based real estate brokerage, recommends seven tactics for selling a home:
- Don’t overprice your property
- Set your price to show up in web searches
- Debut on Friday
- Stay engaged
- Market the property online
- When selling your home, stay put
- If you can, wait to list your property until neighbouring foreclosures are off the market
Some of these may seem obvious, but if you peruse the full report (pdf) you will see that these recommendations come from some in–depth academic research (which is nice to see).
Each year, in late December, I make a charity donation. Over the years I’ve chosen a charity in many different ways, but one thing has always been constant: I always choose projects that aim to improve science education.
However, one thing has been constantly improving: the ease of actually choosing, and this year it couldn’t have been easier thanks to two websites I would like to bring to your attention:
- The Big Give: a well–designed site connecting over 5,000 charities worldwide with donors. You can filter by location, benefactor, sector, and project size (via Intelligent Life).
- Donors Choose: specialising in U.S. education, this site connects donors directly with the classroom requiring help.